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Apple, AT&T sued over iPhone’s Visual Voicemail feature

By Charles Starrett ● Monday, December 3, 2007

New York-based Klausner Technologies has filed suit against Apple and AT&T over the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail feature, claiming patent infringement and seeking $360 million in damages and future royalties. In a statement, Klausner said it believes the iPhone “violates Klausner’s intellectual-property rights by allowing users to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone’s inbox display.” The company also claims that founder Judah Klausner was “the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer.” Klausner Technologies has previously filed similar patent-infringement suits against Comcast, Cablevision, and eBay’s Skype VoIP service.

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If the two patents in question are legit, then there’s not a lot Apple can do about it. After reading the description of the actual mid-1990s patents (U.S. Patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818) on the U.S. Patent website, it does seem to cover exactly how the iPhone can identify and select voice mail. Klausner does claim that they have licensed the patent to other companies; if that’s indeed the case then Apple has even less of chance of fighting this guy off.

As to how late is too late: how do you know if Klausner hasn’t been negotiating (or attempting to) with Apple all along? Legal affairs—particularly contractual ones—rarely move very fast, especially if one party (Apple, for instance) isn’t all that motivated to come to terms.